Wife’s killer facing maximum 10 years at sentencing today

NEWTON — At the sentencing of James Yurchak today, the state will be asking for the maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the Hardyston man who admitted to shooting and killing his wife and then turning the gun on himself.

Yurchak, 50, is facing a minimum of five years and a maximum of 10 years in New Jersey State Prison. Sussex County Assistant Prosecutor Seana Pappas said that her recommendation for a 10-year sentence would be subject to the No Early Release Act, which means he must serve 85 percent of his sentence without parole.

The sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. before Judge Robert J. Gilson in state Superior Court in Newton. Some family members of the Yurchaks are expected to speak at the sentencing, Pappas said.

Yurchak was accused of shooting his wife, Dawn, on Feb. 19, 2008, as she slept in bed in their Hardyston home. Yurchak, who remains free on $500,000 bail, initially pleaded not guilty, with his attorney Miles Feinstein saying that a home intruder had shot Dawn.

But, in September, just days before a trial was expected to begin, Yurchak pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, a downgrade from first-degree murder and second-degree

possession of a weapon to use unlawfully against another person charges. The first-degree murder charge would have carried with it a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.

Yurchak said in court that he killed his wife with a .45-caliber Ruger handgun in order to “alleviate the pain” she was feeling after her mother’s death and her own depression. He then, in a suicide attempt, shot himself in the head.

Yurchak was injured and hospitalized. He said previously that he still suffers effects from the shooting.

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